A white laminate display panel commonly known as a `whiteboard`, has all but replaced the classic chalkboard (a.k.a. blackboard) everywhere from classrooms to boardrooms.
Like a chalkboard, use of a whiteboard involves writing on the board that can later be erased, allowing reuse of the board indefinitely. This writing is accomplished with a pen containing ink specially formulated for quick drying and the ability to be erased. Necessarily, the pen must be kept capped when not being used. Erasure of any significant magnitude is normally accomplished with a very light rubbing of the surface using a felt brick--quite similar to those used with chalkboards. However, whiteboard erasure is generally easier then with a chalkboard. Consequently, even more often than with chalkboards, one frequently observes presenters using their fingers for minor erasures. Reasons for doing this are varied but can be generally summed up in two ways. For small erasures, it is much quicker and easier to use a finger then taking the time (and disruption of the presentation) to reach for an eraser. Second, the stick-like shape of a finger allows for naturally more accurate small edits of an image then with a brick style eraser. This use of a finger for erasing does of course have the undesirable result of leaving residue `ink dust` on the finger or of leaving a finger skin oil impression on the whiteboard.
What is desired is an eraser that has both the immediacy of use and the accuracy of a finger, without impact to the natural usability of the existing marking pen or cleanliness of the user.
No known prior invention addresses a solution to these needs. Some attempts, in particular U.S. Pat. No. 5,072,483, have focused on combining the features of the brick eraser (broad planer eraser surface area for bulk erasing) with those of the marking pen. In the '483 patent a curved cloth covering is attached around a portion of a marking pen cap, or attached to a planar plate extending somewhat tangentially from the cap, or on a parallel grip portion extending from the cap, or extending from a cap having opposite and apertures for receiving two types of writing instruments. However that invention like others, does not have an attachment of the eraser i.e. the curved or flat covering 22 to the pen in a manner that allows its immediate use while the pen is in a marking state. This lack of immediacy continues the incentives to use a finger with its attendant advantages and disadvantages. Neither does the shape of that invention allow for the continued natural usability of the pen shape or cleanliness of the user. It is also obvious to infer from the provided drawings of the '483 invention that during erasures of even a moderate degree the pen may `fly off the handle` from the eraser. Nor does the '483 patent present a shape that is conducive to fine erasures. Certainly any beneficial results that may accrue from '483 patent compete with, rather then supplement those of the brick eraser, and yet do nothing to address the incentives for using one's finger. Likewise U.S. Pat. No. 5,432,973 incorporates a brick-type whiteboard eraser on a holder for three marking pens.